“What a country chooses to save is what a country chooses to say about itself.” Mollie Beattie, Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
We have found great diversity in what our country has preserved for future generation in our quest to visit the 400 plus National Park Sites (NPS). Some sites are majestic, some are historic, and some are educational.
America’s National Parks, as Ken Burns declares, are America’s best idea. When we think of National Parks, we think of grand vistas. The vast majority of the 63 National Park sites preserve unique and magnificent natural resources for the enjoyment of present and future generations.
In contrast, many of the 423 NPS focus on preserving historical and cultural treasures. In the East specifically, NPS sites frequently focus on one of the two major wars that were fought in the East – the American Revolution and the Civil War. And this is appropriate. These are the two wars that created and defined our nation. The NPS battlefield sites preserve the tangible evidence of the our cultural and natural heritage. They remind us of what makes us Americans.
Almost a million American died or were wounded in the Civil War. This exceeds the casualties of all other U. S. wars combined. This day, in the midst of our Kentucky NPS trip, we visited two Civil War sites. Mill Springs Battlefield NM and Camp Nelson. I was intrigued to learn about the importance of these relatively little know sites… including what made them worth saving.
Mill Springs Battlefield National Monument
One of the newest NPS sites, Mill Springs Battlefield NM, was established on March 12, 2019 to commemorate the The Battle of Mill Springs. This battle, in January 1862 in the rolling hills of Kentucky, was the site of the first major Union victory in the Civil War. The victory demoralized the Confederate soldiers, helped to keep Kentucky under Union control, and led to victories in Tennessee a short time later.
The visitor’s center had nice vignettes.
The Confederate forces were entrenched for the winter in November 1861 on the banks of the Cumberland River near Mill Springs, Kentucky. The strategic location, along a supply route and with a natural river barrier, was adjacent to farmland in the interior of Kentucky.
Early in the fighting, amidst fog and dim early light, on January 19, 1862, the Confederate army began an offensive maneuver. General Felix Zollicoffer led his troups in a march to meet the enemy. General Zollicoffer was one of the first Confederate Generals to be killed in the Civil War. In the fog and confusion of the battle, he approached an enemy officer believing him to be a fellow Confederate. Zollicoffer’s mistake was memorable to us. How life changes in an instant. His body was placed under a white oak tree, known as the Zollie Tree.
How does Mills Spring help define us as Americans, and what makes it worth saving? I think we are still learning this. All I know is that I kept thinking about the movie ” Shenendoah” where a father (played by Jimmy Stewart) and his six sons attempted to mind their own business through the war and maintain neutrality in nearby Virginia. When they are drawn into the brutality and heartbreak of the war against their will, they fight to preserve their family and keep the family together. Perhaps Jimmy Stewart as Charlie Anderson, the father in Shenandoah, said it best, “It’s like all wars…the soldiers just want to go home”.
Camp Nelson National Monument
Camp Nelson began as a Civil War supply depot and hospital. It evolved into a recruitment and training center for more than 10,000 formerly enslaved African American soldiers as well as a refugee camp for their families and civilians fleeing war.
This Visitor’s Center also had very nice vignettes depicting Camp Nelson’s history.
Why preserve Camp Nelson? Camp Nelson represents what the war was really all about. Specifically, the courage and determination of the former slaves who fought for their own freedom. In a broader sense, America’s struggle to define itself as the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Before we left the area we happened across a historical marker commemorating the first Boy Scout troop in the US. It was formed in 1910 using the English handbook before Scouts were officially formed in America. Joe hopped out for a quick picture.
